HS basketball: Red Jacket girls fall short

Thursday

The Indians narrowly pulled off an improbable comeback against Geneseo, but ultimately lost 61-54

It was a tale of two halves on Thursday night at Canandaigua Academy.

The No. 2 seed Red Jacket Indians girls basketball team took on the No. 3 Geneseo Blue Devils in the Section V Class C2 semifinal game. The stakes? A chance to play for the Class C2 title for the winning team.

Unfortunately for Red Jacket, they weren’t the team to come out on top. The Blue Devils were by far the better team in the first half. The Indians didn’t back down and were the better squad in the second half. But Geneseo’s first-half cushion was enough to hold on for a 61-54 victory.

Despite the struggles in the first half, Red Jacket head coach George Hotchkiss agreed that the team’s comeback effort was worthy of an applause.

“Absolutely. We played great defense in the second half,” said Hotchkiss. “We didn’t play well in the first half. We should've put a little bit more pressure on them in the first half.”

After the first quarter of play, Geneseo possessed a 19-9 lead over Red Jacket. It didn’t get much better in the next quarter, either.

The Blue Devils went on a quick 5-0 run to start the second quarter, extending their lead to 24-9. Then they went on a 7-2 run, pushing the lead to 31-11. After all was said and done, Geneseo led Red Jacket 33-16 at the end of the first half.

“We were forcing the ball. We were taking too many quick threes. We had no rebounding,” Hotchkiss said of the first-half struggles. “I think we had three rebounds at halftime. We were taking shots and we had nobody inside to rebound.”

But once the second half arrived, so did the Indians' sense of urgency. They were forcing turnovers, getting stronger on the glass, and most importantly shots started to fall.

After three quarters of play, Geneseo still had a sizable lead at 47-35. But Red Jacket did manage to outscore the opposition 19-14 in the quarter. Those 19 points in the third quarter were more than the Indians scored in the entire first half, to put things in perspective.

That momentum carried into the final quarter, as the Indians went on an 18-8 run in the first five minutes of the fourth. They managed to cut the deficit to 55-53 with just under three minutes left to play. But scoring went stagnant for the Indians, as they only put up one point in the final couple of minutes after that run.

In the end, Geneseo hit their free throws to give them the 61-54 win. The Blue Devils will get a crack at the Class C2 championship on Saturday afternoon.

Although the outcome was disappointing, the performance of late and resiliency of the Red Jacket girls can’t be overlooked.

As she usually is, senior captain Sara VanAken was the team’s leading scorer with 18 points. VanAken was held to four points in the first half and spent some time on the bench being tended to by an athletic trainer. However, she fought through the pain and put up 14 points in the second half to give her team a chance.

“Yeah, Sara’s been hurt the last week and a half. Both hip flexors are pulled, and she’s got a hamstring problem going on,” Hotchkiss explained. “She’s hurting bad right now, but she’s a gamer. She’s going to give everything she’s got. She worked hard.”

Junior guard Sydney Close was lethal behind the three-point line for the Indians. Close scored 17 points in the game, with a bunch of those coming from deep. When VanAken struggled early, Close was there to pick the team up. She scored seven of the team’s nine points in the first quarter and posted 10 points in the first half.

“She’s been one of our leaders all year,” Hotchkiss said of Close. “I mean, Syd and Sara are our leaders. We go where Syd takes us. She got hot there for a while, cooled off a little bit. But we only go as far as Syd and Sara take us.”

Considering Red Jacket made it to the Class C2 championship game a season ago, this result seems like a little bit of a letdown right now. Still, the team should hold their heads high after a commendable comeback effort.

“They worked hard. You can’t fault the comeback,” said Hotchkiss. “I mean, they busted their butts in the second half. I’m proud of the way they fought. First half wasn’t what we wanted, but the second half was so good that you can’t complain.”

The Indians finish the season with an impressive record of 16-6, and they’ll have eight players returning for next season.

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